THE MISSIONARY CULTIVATION OF 
: STUDENTS 


Report of the Conference on the Relationships Between the 
Foreign Mission Boards and the Interdenominational 
Agencies of North America in the Missionary 
Cultivation of Students, held at 
25 Madison Avenue, New York, January 21, 1921 


On March 25, 1915, a conference was held in New York under 
the auspices of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, 
attended by representatives of the Foreign Mission Boards and of 
the interdenominational agencies engaged in work among students, 
to consider the various questions of relationship and responsibility 
raised by their common interests. The findings of this conference 
were printed for distribution and have been of very real value in 
suggesting proper methods of procedure. In view, however, of the 
lapse of time and of fresh experience, it was deemed advisable by 
the Committee of Reference and Counsel to call a second conference, 
made up as before, to revise and improve the earlier findings. At 
this meeting, held on January 21, 1921, there were present delegates 
representing twenty-five Boards and agencies. 

After a careful and prolonged discussion the following revised 
statement of the principles of relationship was adopted by the 
Conference. 

The statement is printed here as approved by the Committee of 
Reference and Counsel at its meeting on February 23, 1921. 


I. GENERAL RELATIONSHIPS. 


We recognize the fundamental principle that the ultimate objec- 
tives of the denominational Boards and interdenominational agencies 
represented in the conference are similar. This principle should 
underlie and govern all adjustments growing out of questions of 
relationship. While the denominational Boards are charged with 
the fundamental task of establishing the Church of Christ in its 
manifold operations in the non-Christian world, the interdenomina- 
tional agencies at work on the foreign mission field have come into 
being at the request of missionaries of different denominations to 
meet a great and growing special need. Since these agencies are 
related to no one denomination, they are obliged to draw their 
workers and support from the Church at large as represented by 
the several denominations, 


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II. Musstonary CANDIDATES. 


1. We commend the announced policies of the student move- 
ments when dealing with students purposing to become foreign 
missionaries, and recommend that these policies be continued, in 
order that denominational attachments may not be weakened and 
in order that missionary candidates may become acquainted with the 
opportunities for service in their own denominations. 


2. We recognize with satisfaction the policy and practise which 
increasingly prevail with denominational and interdenominational 
Boards, when candidates apply to Boards other than those to which 
by church membership they are related: of ascertaining the status 
of candidates with their own Boards; of respecting fully every 
obligation of candidates to their Boards ; and, whenever release from 
such obligations is sought, of dealing with the Boards rather than 
with the candidates. We would urge the adoption of such a policy 
by all Boards. It is recognized, however, that the extended service 
of a candidate under some interdenominational agency may make 
it natural for him to seek appointment under that agency. 


3. Since this policy should be respected by missionaries engaged 
in recruiting as well as by Board secretaries, we recommend that all 
Boards and agencies bring this statement very forcibly to the atten- 
tion of all their missionaries home on furlough. 


4. To avoid all possible difficulties, however, the following mode 
of procedure is suggested as one insuring comity in the future: 


(1) No one who is employed by one of these organizations should be approached by 
the representatives of another organization or agency with a definite offer of appointment 
without previous conference with the officers of the organization to which the candidate 
is thus related. 

(2) Leading students from foreign countries, who have been assisted in securing 
their education or who are now being assisted in this country for further study, should 
not be approached with appeals or offers until a conference has been held with the 
organization or person rendering such assistance. 

(3) All organizations which approach candidates belonging to different denomina:- 
tions should make early inquiry of the candidate as to whether he or she is in cor- 
respondence with any other organization or Board. In any case correspondence with the 
foreign Board of the candidate’s denomination should be taken up to discover whether it 
desires the candidate for its own work and that it may have an opportunity to present 
its own claims if desired. 

(4) While recognizing the right of every organization to present its claim in the 
most effective manner, every effort should be made to encourage the use of statements 
which speak only appreciatively of the work of any other organization. Any appeal made 
on the basis of a more liberal provision for salary or allowances as between the different 
boards or organizations interested is to be deprecated. An effort is being made to secure 
a basis of substantial agreement in this direction for all missionary agencies. 


5. We believe that each of the foreign mission Boards should, as 
soon as possible, set apart a secretary who should make the cultiva- 
tion of candidates his special responsibility; and that the foreign 


1 Statements of these policies may be had upon application to the Student Departments 
ofethe “Yo; Mi Ci/Ateand the Yeu WeeGe As 


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mission Boards should adopt plans which will enable their secretaries 
to come in contact with their candidates in all classes of institutions, 
denominational, interdenominational and state, so that there may be 
developed in these students an adequate knowledge of the work and 
needs of their Boards; and that as soon as possible the candidate 
secretary and candidate committee of the Board should help these 
candidates to plan for their preparation as missionaries. 


6. We recommend that the student movements should make 
adequate plans to facilitate the work of secretaries of denominational 
Boards at summer conferences and in connection with other student 
gatherings of an intercollegiate character. 


7. We recommend more frequent consultations and correspond- 
ence between the secretaries of denominational Boards and national 
secretaries of interdenominational movements, in order that the 
spirit of these resolutions may be carried out. 


8. We urge all missionary candidates to proceed along the lines 
of preparation recommended by the Board of Missionary Preparation. 


III. Muisstonary EDUCATION OF STUDENTS. 


1. We believe that every denominational institution for educa- 
tion should make some provision for instruction in missions. 


2. In secondary schools and academies we would recommend an 
emphasis on missionary biography and on studies of the great areas 
of mission activity. 


3. In denominational colleges and universities we believe that the 
departments of Biblical Literature or of Religious Education should 
include studies specifically missionary in their content and objective. 
In case no provision for such instruction exists, the mission Board or 
Boards of the denomination may wisely encourage the establishment 
of a regular course for this purpose. To focus the interest of the 
student body in courses which may be offered as a part of the 
curriculum, colleges should be encouraged to provide adequate 
lecture courses covering the most important and dynamic aspects 
of missions. 

4. We believe that the time is ripe for strong presentations regard- 
ing the cultural and practical values of courses of study in compara- 
tive religion, ethnography, Asiatic history, interracial sociology, 
and the history of civilization to the authorities of state and other 
non-denominational institutions where such courses are not offered. 
We believe that the Board of Missionary Preparation, acting as the 
agent of the foreign mission Boards of the United States and 
Canada, is the proper agency to further such a proposal. 

5. It is our conviction that, whether there be curriculum study 
or not, mission study classes of a voluntary nature should be 
established in all higher institutions of learning. 


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6. In addition to the general study of missions, we emphasize the 
necessity for the study of denominational missionary enterprises. 
Due regard should be paid to the selection of textbooks of approved 
quality. 

7. We urge Christian students in the Christian Associations of 
educational institutions and in local churches to provide programs 
and devise ways and means to present in attractive ways the broad 
cause of missions. Missionary giving is a most helpful accessory in 
such programs, and should be made an important factor in missionary 
presentation, that missionary impulses may find a helpful expression. 
Prayer and missions should be brought strongly before the students 
as a present duty and a high privilege. 


IV. Grtvinc To Missions By STUDENTS. 


1. We recognize that student givers, individually and in groups, 
have the right to determine the objects to which their gifts shall be 
devoted, and that all denominational and interdenominational 
Boards should respect such rights. 


2. In view of the fact that the foreign work of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association and the Young Women’s Christian Association 
is so largely concerned with reaching, for Christ and the Church, 
the students in foreign lands, and in view of the interdenominational 
character of state and other non-denominational institutions in North 
America, it is considered fitting and desirable that the Christian 
Associations in these institutions seek to secure gifts for foreign 
Association work or for some other form of interdenominational or 
undenominational work on the foreign field. In addition, we believe 
that the students of the respective denominations should contribute 
for the support of denominational missionary enterprises through the 
local churches of which they are members or regular attendants; 
or, where there is no church of a giver’s denomination, through such 
special appeals to a denominational group as may be arranged in 
consultation with such bodies as the Christian Associations, the 
Student Council, and the college authorities. 

3. We recommend that denominational colleges continue to be 
regarded as fields for financial cultivation by their respective Boards. 
It is understood, however, that this arrangement shall embody the 
same spirit of comity as that expressed in the paragraph above, and, 
therefore, does not exclude interdenominational or undenominational 
agencies from securing such support as may be agreed upon in 
consultation with the denominational Boards concerned and the 
college authorities. 

4. It is taken for granted that all Boards will respect existing 
financial obligations which have been entered into by the students 
of any institutions with respect to work they have undertaken on the 
field through another Board, denominational or interdenominational. 


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5. We recognize the union institutions on the foreign field as 
especially appropriate objects of support by any student body. 


V. THE ORGANIZATION OF STUDENTS FOR SERVICE IN LOCAL 
CHURCHES DURING THEIR COLLEGE Days. 


1. We believe that normal church life is possible and should be 
established and maintained by students during college life. To 
accomplish this desired result it is recommended: 


(1) That the home pastors and other church workers be urged 
to inform pastors of churches in college communities of the entrance 
in educational institutions of new students from their congregations, 
that avenues of approach may from the first be opened to students 
by the churches of college towns. 


(2) That students be encouraged by their home pastors, by the 
ministers and leading workers of churches in college towns and by 
local student Christian leaders to enter into and hold some definite 
form of membership in the church of the student’s own choice in 
the college community. 


(3) That students be enlisted by the churches in definite and 
normal activities of the church, parish, and community. 

(4) That the program of the activities of the young people’s 
society and of the other organizations of the local church with which 
students are affiliated be adapted to meet the special interests and 
needs of students. 

(5) That the general and women’s Boards should devote more 
time of regular secretaries to work among students, with a view to 
the establishment as an integral part of their religious experience, 
of helpful relations with local churches, the development of their 
denominational consciousness, and of their training for actual 
service. When circumstances permit, a qualified secretary should 
be employed for this special purpose, and wherever possible one 
woman secretary representing jointly the different woman’s Boards 
of a denomination should be employed for such work. 


2. We urge that foreign mission Boards should make special 
efforts to train theological students for, and enlist them in deputation 
work in churches during the term of their theological study, includ- 
ing vacation periods, to the end that as ministers of churches later 
they may be fitted by practical experience to codperate both within 
and without college communities in the establishment of right rela- 
tionships between students and the churches ; and that Boards in this 
effort should include non-volunteers as well as volunteers. 

3. We urge that in such work and in other forms of service in 
and through churches the deputation workers should seek to 
qualify themselves for a variety of definite lines of service, such as 
organizing and leading mission study classes, organizing and train- 


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ing missionary committees, advising special groups of church leaders 
in graded missionary instruction, the promotion of giving, the 
organization of service and instruction by means of general mis- 
sionary addresses; and that with this in view special training be 
provided when practicable for student volunteers and others desiring 
to enter upon such service, in connection with meetings of volunteer 
bands, city, or district volunteer unions, and student summer 
conferences. 

4. We believe that special efforts should be made by the proper 
denominational societies and by the student movements to secure 
the appointment of able ministers to churches of college towns and 
communities, and to arouse the people of the churches at large, both 
within and without college commun'*ties, to a realization of the impor- 
tance of developing and utilizing the force resident in the great body 
of Christian students now in the educational institutions, thus 
strengthening the leadership of the churches in all worthy activities 
for the welfare of our own and other lands. 

5. Believing that the formation and strengthening of denomina- 
tional attachments will be best accomplished by the fullest codpera- 
tion between denominational and interdenominational agencies, it is 
recommended that the representatives of all these agencies further 
cultivate the closest practicable personal and official relations. 


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